Marc-Olivier Wahler to assume position July 1

WEDNESDAY, March 9 — MSU’s Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum announced today that Marc-Olivier Wahler has been appointed as the museum’s director. The position has been vacant since the death of the museum’s founding director, Michael Rush, in March 2015.

Wahler serves as founding director of the Chalet Society in Paris; artistic advisor for De Appel Arts Center, Amsterdam, and CI Contemporary Istanbul; and founding director of Transformer Sculpture Park in Melides, Portugal. He will assume his role at the Broad Art Museum on July 1.

“As the new director, Mr. Wahler will bring a broad, international perspective to campus,” said MSU Provost June Pierce Youatt in a statement released today. “Such a perspective has always been consistent with our goal of having the Broad Art Museum serve as an MSU portal from which to explore the greater world.”

Eli Broad described Wahler as an “ideal director for the Broad Art Museum,” praising his “curatorial abilities and his deep appreciation for contemporary art.”

A Swiss native, Wahler was honored with the Meret Oppenheim Prize in 2013, Switzerland’s highest cultural award in the contemporary arts, and was made Chevalier of the order of Arts and Letters in France in 2011. He has served as a guest lecturer at colleges and universities around the world, and holds a bachelor’s degree in english literature and master’s degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Neuchâtel.

Wahler has curated over 400 exhibitions around the globe, principally as museum director/chief curator, but also as a consultant and independent curator. Wahler writes regularly for international magazines, including Flash Art International, Parkett Magazine, and Art Press Magazine, and has contributed to many academic publications and exhibition catalogs on a range of contemporary art topics, including the art encyclopedia “From Yodeling to Quantum Physics.”

“I am honored to have been selected to serve as director of the Broad Art Museum at MSU. The Museum’s mission of employing international contemporary art and ideas as a platform for education and experimentation resonates deeply with so much of the work I have undertaken throughout my career,” said Wahler. “I look forward to collaborating with faculty and students conducting innovative research across the University, and building upon the incredible work of the Museum’s staff to deepen the institution’s role as a generator for experimentation and cross-disciplinary exchange, and a vibrant resource for the entire East Lansing community.”